Tobacco Woes, South Georgia

The rain plaguing our area for the last two months has been especially unforgiving to one local community in south Georgia.

It's a tough sight for tobacco farmers to see; large chunks of their tobacco fields are missing, plowed up and barren.

Storm clouds brought more than 20 inches of rain to the city of Hahira, water that washed away any hope of a decent crop.

Fred Wetherington, a local tobacco farmer, said, "We've lost somewhere around 20 to 25 percent outright and then of course the root systems on everything that we have on everything around Hahira are just sort of non-existent."

The result? A crop that can't bounce back.

Farmers say it wasn't just rows of tobacco coming up, they actually had to plow entire sections of the field. It has many farmers scratching their heads wondering where to go from here."

"I've never had to walk away from this much particularly in this stage."

But farmers aren't the only ones feeling the effects from the crop loss and all the rain.

Myron Crowe, Hahira's Mayor, says, "Any time you have farmers who have to plough up their fields and start all over, it's devastating and we've had a number of problems here in the city with just storm water."

Needless to say, both farmers and residents in Hahira hope July brings a lot of sunshine and fewer storms. Tobacco farmers say this will not be a good year for the crop in both quality and yield.

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